Life Expectancy Declines In The U.S. For The First Time Since 1993
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Life expectancy for Americans in 2015 declined by .1 year, from 78.9 to to 78.8, according to the CDC.
When broken down by gender, the life expectancy decreased for men by .2 years, and for women by .1 year.
In 2015, the 10 leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide) remained the same as in 2014.
Those causes accounted for 74.2 percent of all deaths in the United States last year.
From 2014 to 2015, age-adjusted death rates increased for 8 of 10 of those causes and decreased for one.
The rate increased 0.9 percent for heart disease, 2.7 percent for chronic lower respiratory diseases, 6.7 percent for unintentional injuries, 3 percent for stroke, a whopping 15.7 percent for Alzheimer's disease, 1.9 percent for diabetes, 1.5 percent for kidney disease and 2.3 percent for suicide. The rate decreased by 1.7 percent for cancer.
The rates for influenza and pneumonia did not change significantly.
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